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Knuckles Cracked for NaNo

If you’ve never heard of NaNoWriMo, you have A.) not been following my blog long enough, and B.) not in the know. I’m not offended, however. I just consider you to have finally found your way to the light.
It’s pronounced NA(as in ‘knack’)-NO-RYE-MOE and it’s an acronym for National Novel Writing Month. It takes place during the month of November and there is but one challenge – to write 50,000 words (one novel) in 30 days.

That’s it.

It’s free, it’s engaging, it’s entertaining…it’s a blast! Think about it; all you have to do is write something like 1,700 words a day. That’s not bad! You write a bit here, a bit there, a bit everywhere and sooner or later, you get to the end of your daily word count and you’ve had fun with it. You do that for 30 days and you’re in the clear. You have the bragging rights to tell all you friends and family that you did it; you took on the NaNoWriMo Challenge, and you WON!

One of the best parts of the whole thing is that it’s not just you who’s doing all the writing. Well, okay, it is. But others are going to be doing it all right along with you. ‘Who’, you ask? Tons of people.
First off, you get all the pep-talk e-mails from whose who run the Office of Letters and Light, which are amazing. Then, even better than getting all that ‘amazing’, you get to connect with those in your area. And don’t think that NaNo is just in a small portion of the U.S. It’s EVERYWHERE! This thing is huge and spans most areas of the developed globe. No matter where you are, there is most likely a NaNo Region on the site (www.nanowrimo.org) that is there for you, and the host of which will be sending all the pep-talks, and notifications of write-ins (meetings with other writers involved in NaNo in your area) to you every few days.
It’s something so much bigger than just you in a bland, monotonous world, putting simple stupid letters on a boring white screen.
It’s a whirlwind of a writing adventure in which you are the master of your world, weaving characters, plots, love, battles, conflict, action, and anything else you wish to create into your own wonderful, vivid splash of literary splendor. And you get to do it in a community of other writers who love and want to do the same.

You may have read this far and be thinking, “Yeah, maybe some day.” That’s the precise instance where you need to look in the mirror and slap yourself in the face. “C’mon! Wake up! Carpe Diem! Live in the now, man! Tomorrow is not a guarantee, and the past is over. You live right here and right now, just like Jesus Jones told you.

Step up to the plate. Who cares if you make 5,000 words for the month or 65,000 (yeah, some people do). Brainstorm, throw down an outline if you have to, get that story out of you that has been inside you for years under the umbrella of ‘one day’. Get it out. It’s all about fun.
Crack your knuckles, do some push-ups, dust off your computer keys and get ready, because November One is right around the corner.